Creating an efficient system to reduce the impact of floods and mitigate the damage they do should be within the powers of our governments
Creating an efficient system to reduce the impact of floods and mitigate the damage they do should be within the powers of our governments
The Brahmaputra is one of the world’s mightiest rivers. It reaches widths of 10 km from bank to bank at several places even at normal times. When it floods, the result is pure catastrophe. That is happening now in Assam, where 95 people have already died and an estimated 19 lakh affected by the floods this monsoon.
Such events are an annual occurrence in Assam. The frequency and intensity of the floods have increased with the passage of time. For the past 25 years at least, every year, floods have devastated massive tracts of land in the state.
Though the flatlands of Assam have always been prone to floods, historical records show that things were not always so bad. The bad times started after a massive earthquake in 1950 that measured 8.6 on the Richter scale. Sections of the riverbed were raised by this quake, and the river changed course in several places. Flooding, which was not an annual feature before that, became more frequent afterwards. Things also got worse over the years as a result of human activity. Deforestation contributed. So did the rise in population. Immigrants, mainly illegal migrants from Bangladesh, started living in previously uninhabited areas along the riverside and even on sandbanks on the river itself. Efforts to control the damage have failed. A body called the Brahmaputra Board was set up in 1980 to prepare a master plan for flood control in the Brahmaputra valley. It has shown no appreciable results till date.
Governments at both the Central and state levels have long been pouring in money for flood control and relief measures but to no avail. A total of Rs 8,000 crores was allocated for flood control across the region during the 11th Five-Year Plan period. Of this Rs 3,000 crores was utilised. The results are before us now.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s offer of Rs 500 crores for relief following his aerial survey on Monday will be welcome in the state, but as usual in India, the question to ask is really this: How much of it will reach the intended beneficiaries?
We may have made great progress as a species, but attempts to control nature still remain, in the final analysis, beyond human control. What is more tragic and galling is that we make a mess even of those things that are substantially within our control. Creating an efficient and honest system to reduce the impact of floods and mitigate the damage they do should be within the powers of our governments. However, they haven’t managed to build one from 1950 till now, though the floods occur nearly every year. All that they have done is sink vast amounts of public money in flood waters.
